Kobe said, "I think it's fine for us to boil over a little bit .. it's fine to get a little chippy," while the more jovial Howard said, "Sometimes when you try too hard, you mess up ... we're just trying to put it all together, just quiet our spirits and play."

But those reports are conjectural, abstract, easily assuaged by a puckish twitpic. The issues the Lakers are facing—the real ones—are far more tangible and far more lethal.

Over the course of 15 minutes on Monday, news broke on the injuries of Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Jordan Hill. The Lakers three best big men, arguably their only three NBA-caliber big men, will all be sidelined for the upcoming games—at the least. Which means Antawn Jamison, Earl Clark and Robert Sacre will be forced into extensive playing time.

It doesn't get much more threadbare than that.

And while neither Howard, Hill nor Gasol are in serious jeopardy of missing EXTENDED time, even their short absence could put the Lakers in jeopardy of missing the postseason.

The Lakers next three games are against Houston, San Antonio and Oklahoma City. Here's the most productive player in each of those front courts:

Player

PPG

RPG

BPG

FG%

PER

OmerAsik (HOU)

10.6

11.4

1.1

.525

14.93

Tim Duncan (SA)

17.7

9.6

2.5

.513

25.55

Serge Ibaka (OKC)

14.4

8.5

2.9

.565

19.99

For comparison sake, here's how Jamison, Sacre and Clark stack up:

Player

PPG

RPG

BPG

FG%

PER

Antawn Jamison (LAL)

6.7

4.2

.3

.440

13.32

Robert Sacre (LAL)

0.5

0.8

0.3

.333

0.47

Earl Clark (LAL)

0.9

0.7

0.4

.333

5.68

Even with Howard, Gasol and Hill in tow, the Lakers would have been hard-pressed to beat Houston, San Antonio or Oklahoma City. But now? Extending the losing streak to six doesn't just seem plausible—it seems downright inevitable.

Now, I would never deign to posit that there's a GOOD time to go on a losing streak. There isn't. But right now is a particularly bad time, as detailed by ESPN.com's J.A. Adande, who writes:

If the top eight teams in the Western Conference maintain their current pace, the Lakers must go 31-18 in their remaining 49 games to get the 46 victories it would likely take to make the playoffs.

As in, if they lose three straight, they would need to go 31-15 to make the playoffs. That's a 67.4-percent clip; only six teams in the league have won at that rate this season.

Let's just say Kobe better have some Mamba in reserve for the upcoming week.